TENNIS

TENNIS; At the Sight of Grass, Edberg And Becker Can Smell a Title

By ROBIN FINN,

Published: June 23, 1991

WIMBLEDON, June 22—
Defending Wimbledon champion Stefan Edberg can't actually see the center court grass from his London penthouse and hasn't traversed it in nearly a year.

But when he closes his eyes he can remember exactly how it felt beneath his sneakers as he deployed a gossamer game to dethrone Boris Becker and claim his second title here.

"Nothing else feels quite so good under your feet," said Edberg, who is 12 and 0 in his last dozen outings on turf after dominating at Queens Club last week. "No other place suits my game so well." Like Hand in Glove . . .

Edberg, with never a sunny hair out of place and rarely a stroke out of sync here, fits inside center court like a gem in a jewelry box: He belongs and knows it.

And he isn't shy about his prospects for retaining his title in the Grand Slam that only Andre Agassi is reluctant to hail as the most prestigious tournament in the world.

That feat would make Edberg equal with the three-time champion Boris Becker, the man whose claims on Wimbledon most resemble his own, and would give Edberg 31 career titles, one more than Becker.

But the honey-haired German with the dark temper has developed his own fondness for center court, the place where he earned his first Grand Slam title in 1985 and became, at 17, the youngest men's champion in Wimbledon history. In the last five years no player, not even Edberg has established a finer record on grass.

Becker loves this surface precisely for its idiosyncrasies, a line of reasoning the neophyte Agassi seems likely to adopt once he devotes himself to expanding his 0 and 1 record here.

Agassi has, after all, been nothing but intrigued by the way Becker has chosen to handle his career. On grass, which Becker as often as not wears like a green badge of courage in the form of stains on his shirt and shorts, souvenirs of acrobatics that don't always defy gravity, he is 48-6 since 1986. Few Would Argue

Becker is, alongside Edberg, quite simply the only other entrant in the men's draw whose chance of winning Wimbledon is inarguable.

And given the oddity of this year's draw, Becker's chances of threshing a path through the weaker bottom half of the field to his sixth Wimbledon final appear close to inevitable.

The draw's top quarter is headlined by Edberg and contains four former champions who hold eight titles among them (John McEnroe, Pat Cash, Jimmy Connors), plus two hard-serving young seeded players, the often-injured Pete Sampras (No. 8) and Goran Ivanisevic (No. 10).

"Wimbledon feels like coming home," said Becker, who does not often rhapsodize about his profession. Isolated Endeavors

As usual, Becker has been doing his Wimbledon prep work in isolation, steering clear of the tuneup tournaments and exhibitions -- except for a two-match exhibition at Roehampton that concluded today -- that have attracted most of the competition.

But he has been unable to avoid the attention of the London tabloids, all of which appear more interested in critiquing his romantic status than in investigating his practice habits.

Depending on which tabloid one peruses, Becker is either emotionally armed to win Wimbledon because he has blissfully reunited with longtime girlfriend Karen Schultz -- "You play better when you are in love and loved" -- or emotionally armed to win Wimbledon -- "My mind is on tennis and it doesn't matter if I am dating a girlfriend or not."

In any case, Becker's upcoming travails on the court appear uncomplicated enough until the semifinal round, where a rematch with Ivan Lendl, Wimbledon's version of the Can Miss Kid, looms.

But Lendl, seeded third and perennially jousting for the only Grand Slam title to elude him after 11 campaigns, has to get past his potential third-round opponent, Queens Club finalist David Wheaton, yet another player whose volleys are more natural and spirited than Lendl's. No-Frills Route

Last year, Lendl did everything but enter a monastery as he pursued a grass-based policy of exclusion: no French Open, no clay-court diversions, no fun or frills or fats, no qualms about jeopardizing his No. 1 ranking. The strategy set new standards for obsessiveness but produced no better result than his fifth semifinal finish here.

Martina Navratilova took a similar if less quixotic route in capturing a record ninth Wimbledon championship in 1990. But her valiant play was enhanced by the disappearance of defending champion Steffi Graf, French Open champion Monica Seles, and soon-to-be United States Open champion Gabriela Sabatini before the final.

There, Navratilova had only to subdue Zina Garrison, a rival she had controlled previously in all but one of their 28 meetings, and Garrison obediently bowed out in straight sets in her first career Grand Slam final. Lendl, in contrast, had to cope with none other than Edberg in the semifinal round, and failed in straight sets.

This year Lendl's approach to Wimbledon has been less maniacal, partially because of recent surgery to remove scar tissue from his right palm, and less encouraging.

Last year he captured his first career grass-court title at Queens; this year, after becoming unhinged by a line call, he was defeated in the first round by unheralded Grant Connell of Canada, who also happens to be the first obstacle to Agassi's much-heralded second visit to Wimbledon. Glad to Be Back

Agassi last played here in 1987, lost to Henri Leconte in the first round, and stayed off grass altogether thereafter, preferring to exert himself on the red clay of Paris each May and spend the remainder of June in the weight room "getting strong." That strength carried him into, but not felicitously out of, the finals of his last three Grand Slams.

Despite his lack of prowess and prolificacy on grass, Agassi is seeded fifth, in accordance with his computer ranking. Despite his dearth of esteem for Wimbledon, a condition he ascribes to lack of experience rather than disinterest, Agassi says that he is excited to be back. His shedding of his customarily garish garb for an almost-white outfit has caused the stiff upper lip of Wimbledon's rules committee to tremble.

Last time he was here Agassi said he was intimidated by Leconte on the side court and prohibited, because he didn't have the proper ticket, from even getting a peek at center court.

"Tradition has its place and it's there at Wimbledon," he said. "I like change, and going to play there is a change in itself. For the first time in a long time I'll be playing a tournament where I'm not expected to do a lot, which is nice. I'll give it my best and hope for the best."

That seems to be the strategy to veteran Wimbledon performers, the ex-champions McEnroe and Connors, will take into competition. Connors, whose status as a 38-year-old former Grand Slam champion earned him wild cards here and at Paris, will become the first man to play 100 singles matches at Wimbledon if he gets past Veli Paloheimo of Finland. A Smooth Start?

McEnroe, who followed up his Davis Cup triumph with a first-round exit at Manchester, should get through his initial rounds without problems, unlike last year, when Derrick Rostagno ambushed him in the first round. But his only reward for hard work in the early going looks to be a fourth-round face-off with Edberg.

"I can't say I'm going to go out there and win Wimbledon this year," said McEnroe, a three-time champion, "but I can promise that at least this year I'm going to be competitive."

Photos: Boris Becker after his victory over Michael Chang at the French Open earlier this month. (Associated Press); Stefan Edberg playing Emilio Sanchez at the Lipton International Players Championships in March. (Agence France-Presse)